Press Releases

Bookmark Begins New Season with Interesting Mix of Authors
June, 2006

 Rick Bragg's not afraid to write about war. But when Bookmark host Don Noble asks this Pulitzer Prize winner during their conversation with Winston Groom why he doesn't write about sex, he says, "Can't. Won't. I'm afraid of my Mama." Groom, whom many know for his novel Forrest Gump, has written about both war and sex. He, tongue firmly lodged into cheek, claims that war is easier.

That these two acclaimed writers are not faint of heart isn't surprising; but that they are sharp of funny bone is. Both saw conflict in ways most never will. Both know writing as few ever can. In the first of the new season's 15-episode lineup, Bragg and Groom provide a delightful mix of humor and depth as they candidly discuss life, death, and the writing in between.

It sets the tone for a remarkable season that includes four Pulitzer Prize winners including Bragg, whose books include All Over But the Shoutin'; Taylor Branch, biographer of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; and two-term Poet Laureate Rita Dove.


Author Juan Williams (L) and Bookmark host Don Noble.


Also appearing are bestselling author Ann Rice, known for writing about vampires and Jesus; Allen Barra, who tackles the arguable messiah of southern football, Bear Bryant; attorney Frank T. Hollon, who wrote The God File as well as a children's book featuring a rebellious sandwich; George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker, whose assignments in Iraq provide the first-person narrative for Assassin's Gate; Juan Williams, NPR correspondent, Fox News political analyst and author of Eyes on the Prize; Sue Monk Kidd author of The Secret Life of Bees; Alabama's own Mark Childress, who wrote Crazy in Alabama; UA's Creative Writing Program Director Michael Martone, mixer of fiction and satire with tourism in The Blue Guide to Indiana; and sportswriter Clyde Bolton, who wrote Stop the Presses So I Can Get Off: Tales from Forty Years of Sports Writing. Emmy award winning Noble has 18 years of experience hosting author interviews for Bookmark. He retired from teaching English at UA after 32 years, but recently reentered the classroom - this time teaching journalism. Occasionally, students make up the studio audience and participate by asking questions. Noble's mission - to ask in-depth questions about the book and its genesis - offers rare insight for the audience.

Bookmark's intimate format reminds us of something larger: conversation still counts. The season begins Sunday, June 25 at 1:30 pm. on Alabama Public Television.


Press Releases || The University of Alabama Center for Public Television